Rotary printing press



Apnl 12, 1927. w E. OLWER ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Filed Oct. 1, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheetl INVENTOR WU 8 M ATTORNEYS Aprll 12, 1927. w. E. OLIVER ROTARY PRINTING PRESS File d Oct. 1, 1924 2 Shouts-Sheet 2 INVENIOR ill/1 6 0(a Patented Apr. 12, 1927.

UNITED STATES WALTER E. OLIVER, OF WOODCLIFF, NEW JERSEY.

ROTARY PRINTING PRESS.

Application filed October 1, 1924. Serial No. 740,886.

My invention relates to rotary printing presses, and it has for an object to provide a rotary printing press of simple construction in which all printing, whether of differcutv colors or only one, and perforating, punching and the like is accomplished during the first run of paper. in other words, all operations are completed when the paper is run through once.

Another object is to provide a machine that is easily accessible for changing type plates from one job to another, which is accomplished in a shorter period than with the present type of rotary press.

in the drawings 2' Fig. 1 is an isometric view of an illustrative machine which embodies my invention showing two printing stations. certain parts are shown in section and other parts are broken away.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal gripper shaft.

Fig. 3 is a v rt'cal section through the gripper shaft and drum showing the locking effect of the rubber pad when the gripper has left the drum.

Referring to the drawings, the main frame consists of right and left hand frames 2 and 4.- which are of a length sufficient to take care of any desired number of operations, or they may be made in sections and bolted together thereby providing room for work that has greater number of operations than the usual run. The side frames 2 and et are substantially supported, as by means of cross supports 6 which are bolted to the side frames.

Slidably mounted on the ways 8 are the movable operating stations 10, two of which are shown in Fig. 1, a printing station 12 and a paper pulling station 1d. Various other stations may be added, as desired, such as a perforating station, or a numbering station.

The first printing station 16 which is in fixed position is mounted on stationary end frames 18-18 at the front of the machine and consists of series of type drums 20, a bac ting plate or cylinder 22, ink rollers 2l, and driving mecnanism 26. This station is used to print the underside of the paper.

The end of a roll section through the 16 and 12, then through pulling station 142 of paper 28 mounted on brackets 30 is pulled through the stationson two brackets 34 and is operated independently of the rest of the machine through a friction clutch 36 driven by a pulley 88. At the second printing station 12 the type cylinders 40 and backing cylinder 42 are reversed and are placed in this position to print the upper side of the paper. The ink is distributed to the type cylinder 40 through a series of ink rollers 4:4: in the usual Way well known in the art.

The second printing station is adjustable in a longitudinal direction to position the printing in the proper relation to the printing on the opposite side of the page. As

here shown the adjustment is obtained by means of mechanism comprising a pair of pinions 46 pinned to a shaft 48 and meshing with racks 5050 which are fastened along the upper inner edges of frames 2 and i. The portions of the shaft 48 which extend beyond pinions 4;64r6, are mounted in brackets 5252, the right hand portion having a gear 5a pinned to its outer end. A pinion 56 ed in a bearing 58 attached to the side ofthe bracket 52 and has a handle 60 pinned to its shaft. When the handle 60 is turned the pinions d6, 46 rotate and run the station along the ways 8. at the desired position without changing the angular position of the cylinders. carrythe cylinders 10, 412, and ink rollers 1 1 are constructed so as to overlap the ways 8 as shown at 62 and have fastened to. the underside of the overlapping portions (32, plates 6-1 which form a groove to slide over the projecting edges 66 of ways 8, and thereby prevent the printing mechanism from rising from the side frames.

The driving mechanism for the printing stations and the pulling stations comprises a main drive shaft 68 mounted in bearings or housings 70 sleeve and backing cylinder shaft of the each pair of cylinders is.

pulling station,

caused to revolve simultaneously. The

meshing with gear 5% is mount-- The brackets 52 which also which are fastened to brackets 18, 52 and 7 6. The shaft 68 is driven by a.-

Worms 72 connected with the stations 12 and let slide with said stations when they are adjusted along ways 8 explained, and always remain in operative relation with shaft 88 by virtue of the fact that the key slot 67 is cut along the entire shaft 68 in which the keys of the worms engage and slide.

The paper pulling station 14 which is illustrated in detail in Figs. 2 and 3, may be constructed in the following manner: ()n a pair of side brackets 76 which are adjustable along ways 8 by means heretofore cxplained, are mounted paper tension rods 78, cylinder 80 and gripper shaft 82. The drive is identical. to that as shown for the printing station 12, excepting that the upper gear 8% of the pair of spur gears 84, 86 drives the gripper sleeve 88 by means of an adjustable bushing 90 which is keyed to the sleeve 88 and has holes in its flange, through one of which a pin 98 is passed which cooperates with an appropriate hole in the gear 84.- locking the gear Set and sleeve 88 in driving relation. Keyed to the sleeve 88 are gripper sleeves 94 provided with removable flanges 96 which come in contact with the paper, fed over the drum 80, and exert a pressure upon said paper sufficient to pull the same along when the cylinder 80 and the sleeve 88 are revolving. The amount of paper that is thus pulled is immediately taken up on the roll 31, of the rewinding attachment 82, operated by the aforesaid friction clutch 36 which is set with just enough t-ention to keep the paper taut without tearing.

I have illustrated only two gripper sleeves 94 and two removable flanges 96. Associated with each flange 96 is a wide flange 95 at right angles to the flange 96. Preferably it is integral with its flange 96. Its function is to assist its flange 96 in feeding the paper to the roll 81. The flanges 96 are narrow and because of this fact it has been found in practice that they tend to break the paper at the start and finish of the paper feed between printing operations. The wide flanges 95 which are at right angles to the flanges 96 therefore assist in the feed of the paper and avoid the breaking of the paper at the start of the paper feed. Similar wide flanges 97 also in planes at right angles to the flanges 97 are provided to avoid the breaking of the paper at the finish of the paper feed. Each flange 97 is carried by a sleeve 99 which is adjustably aflixed by a bolt or bolts to the sleeve 88.

It is necessary in printing by the rotary press method to make the type on type plate cylinders so that printing can be continuous leaving only the necessary amount of blank space on the paper between prints for cutting. There are occasions however when the size of the form to be printed is not the full circumference of the cylinder and a large space would be left between the finish of one print and start of the next print which would waste an enormous amount of paper.

In order to prevent this large space from appearing between prints on the paper, in my improved type of rotary printing press the flanges 96 on the grippers 94 are cut away an angular amount approximately equal to the space on the type plate between the end and starting type as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, and for each set of type plates of different size a corresponding set of flanges 96 is provided.

The grippers 9d are set by means of the aforementioned flanged bushing 90 which is revolved to a position which will bring the cut-out portion 98 in its approximate relative position to that of the space between the finish and start of the type onthe drums 20 and 40.

It will be readily seen that as long as the flange 96 of grippers 94 is in contactwith the paper while revolving, the paper will be carried along, but just soon as the flanged portion releases its grip on the paper resulting from the cut-out portion 98, the paper will stop moving.

In order to prevent the rewinding mechanism from continuing to wind the paper on the receiving cylinder 81. a pressure arm 100 pivoted on a bracket 102 at 10 1 is provided with a rubber pad 105 contained within a housing 106 which is pivoted between the forked ends of the lever 100 at 108. A spring 110 suspended between a lug 112 on the lever 100 and an eye 114: on the bracket 102 exerts an upward pull against the flanged bushing 83 keyed to sleeve 88.

As soon as the flanges 96 of the grippers 94 leave the paper the gripper sleeve 88 drops an amount sufficient to push down the arm 100, and thereby press rubber pad 105 against the paper above rod 78. The tension thus created is enough to prevent the rewinding mechanism from continuing to revolve, and to cause a slipping of the clutch 36. A screw 116 can be adjusted by means of a handle 118 to give the proper tension required for holding the paper.

The drop of the gripper sleeve 88 is brought about by means of the sliding bearings 71 in which the shaft 82 is journaled. These bearings 71 have screws 73 fastened in their upper portions which screws project through a bar 75 and each of which has a pair of lock nuts 77 fastened to its outer end. The bar 75 is supported by brackets 79 fastened to the top of main brackets 76. The lock nuts are adjusted so that when flanges 96 are in contact with the paper a small space 81 will be left between the bottom of said nuts and the top of bar 75, which is the distance the sleeve will drop when flanges 97 of the grippers 99 leave the paper. This distance is only a few thousandths of an inch, and therefore does not affect the relationship of gears 84L and 86, but the distance is much greater at the pad 105 due to the ratio of the leverage of the arm 100.

lVhen it is desired to use this press for new set of type plates, the plates that oi-mely were used are removed from the inting rolls and the new plates are put In place. Atthe same time the flanges 96 are changed so that flanges corresponding to the new type plates are used, Station 12 is then moved by turning handle 60 until the type plates at this station will registerwith the type plates at station 16. When these two stations are in registering position. pin 95 is pulled out and sleeve 88 is rotated until the new flanges 96 are in position to cause the paper to move during the time that the printing plates are in contact with the paper, but to permit the paper to remain stationary during the time that the blank portions of the type plates are in contactwith the paper. it is obvious that if the units to be printed are short, double sets of plates may be used at the printing stations with gaps between them, in which case the flanges 96 would have two correding gaps, or these type plates may be together so that two units are printed, one immediately after the other in the man ner which has been described for printing a single unit.

it is to be understood that the mechanism which I have thus described in detail is given by way of illustration only and that the same may be modified in many particu lars, without departing from the spirit of my invention.

What I claim is:

1. A rotary printing press having a printing cylinder adapted to print for part of a revolution, and adapted not to print for a part of a revolution, and feeding mechanism adapted to advance the material to be printed during the printing portion of the movement of said cylinder comprising narrow flanges and a wide flange carried by each narrow flange and at right angles thereto.

2. A rotary printing press comprising a printing cylinder, a removable arcuate printing plate adapted to be attached to said cylinder, an operating station movable relative to said printing cylinder and a paper pulling mechanism comprising a feed roll, a feed shaft, and removable arcuate feed members of an angular size proportional to the angular size of the printing plate adapted for attachment to said feed shaft and comprising narrow flanges and Wide flanges at right angles thereto, and adapted When so attached to press the paper against the feed roller during a portion of each revolution of the feed shaft and to release such pressure during a portion of each such revolution.

3. A device as characterized in claim 2, which includes means for holding the paper against movement during that portion of the revolution of the feed shaft when the paper is not pressed against said feed roller.

WALTER E. OLIVER. 

